


Slipping and Falling (into Love)

by benjji2795



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mostly fluff anyway, idek, lol, this is just, with a little bit of accidental confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8954608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benjji2795/pseuds/benjji2795
Summary: Nursey is clumsy.  Dex knows this.  Yet when they venture out after a terrible snowstorm, he's still caught off-guard when Nursey slips and falls on the ice.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I literally don't know what this is...but enjoy it anyway :)

_It’s literally ridiculous how much butter Bitty goes through_ , Dex muses as he and Nursey walk out of the Haus to go to the murder Stop’n’Shop. They had known yesterday morning that starting in the afternoon, they would be hit with a nasty snowstorm (a foot and a half of snow plus a half inch of ice for good measure), so Ransom and Holster had gone out and supposedly stocked up on everything Bitty could possibly need for the next few days. But then Bitty literally spent all of that afternoon and most of this morning stress baking and he was out. And because Ransom and Holster had gone out yesterday that meant he and Nursey had drawn the short straw (well, actually Nursey had drawn the short straw, which means Dex had to come with him because there’s no way he’d make it to the shop on his own in this weather).

 

There’s white everywhere, mostly untouched. The road out in front of the Haus hasn’t been plowed yet, and only a few tire tracks mar its otherwise pristine surface. The sidewalks are partially cleared, leaving them a narrow path to walk to the store on.

 

By necessity they walk close to each other, with Nursey on his left. Their shoulders brush with every step (and their hands would too, if they hadn’t both shoved them into their coat pockets), and Dex feels like Nursey's too close to him. Like he’s crowding into Dex’s space and suffocating him—but then again, lately that’s how he’s felt any time Nursey is in the same room, or smiles at him, or talks to him, or—basically does anything at all—Dex feels as if he can’t breathe. Like Nursey has sucked all the air out of the room or some poetic bullshit like that. Nursey is there all the time and Dex just wishes he’d go away so he could have a second to take a breath (but that doesn’t happen, because Dex has never gotten any kind of break in his life).

 

They’re walking along, bent over slightly as they lean into the wind, trudging slowly through the snow. And then Dex sees it start to happen out of the corner of his eye.

 

Dex really should’ve expected this, because it’s _Nursey_ , the same guy who can manage to trip over thin air. And to some extent he did, because he insisted on coming along; he just didn’t expect it to happen so soon, when they’re barely out of sight of the Haus.

 

But Nursey takes a step, and his foot lands on a patch of ice hidden beneath a thin layer of powdery snow. It lands, and instead of gripping the ground, it keeps sliding. Nursey lurches, losing his balance, and Dex knows there’s no way he’s going to get it back before he hits the ground. Reaching out, Dex grabs his bicep to try and hold him up, but that only seems to make it worse.

 

His other foot slips, and suddenly Nursey is in free fall, heading toward the ground, leaving Dex no choice but to put an arm under his back. He stumbles, but he’s able to gain control of his and Nursey’s momentum before the both hit the ground.

 

They come to a halt, and Dex looks down at Nursey’s panicked expression. His eyes are wide and he’s breathing heavily. It’s a little more than absurd, but in spite of that, he still looks good and Dex mentally curses. _God, I’m so in love with him_ , he thinks.

 

At that moment, they lock eyes, and Dex feels his face start to flush, not in response to the biting cold. He’s holding Nursey in such a way that it looks like his dipping him, as if they’re in some ballroom dancing class and not outside on a sidewalk in the middle of winter. That, combined with the thought that just ran through his head, is more than enough to make Dex feel completely and totally unsettled.

 

Nursey bites his lip, and Dex notices a blush that’s forming on his cheeks as well, though Nursey’s isn’t nearly as noticeable because of his darker skin tone. They’re both at a loss for words, and they’re not moving. Dex’s arms are starting to feel the strain of holding Nursey up, and so he clears his throat and opens his mouth to say something—anything to break this spell that they seem to have both come under.

 

“Uhh, I think I need a band-aid ‘cause I hurt myself falling for you.”

 

Dex clamps his jaw shut and—where the hell did _that_ come from? Apparently, all that his panicked and love-addled mind could come up with was a terrible and cheesy pick-up line.

 

“You do remember I’m the one that fell, right?” Nursey asks, his brow furrowing, and Dex wants to sink through the ground and die.

 

“I panicked, okay!” Dex replies. The moment was so tense and he’s in love and he was panicking and so of course, not only was the only thing he could come up with a pick-up line, it was one that didn’t even make sense.

 

Dex brings a hand up to scrub his face—or to possibly hide his darkening blush—whichever option is less incriminating. In doing this, he leaves his other arm to bear the complete weight of Nursey’s body, which is more than it can handle, and before he can react to get his other arm back supporting Nursey, he loses him and lets him fall to the ground.

 

His weight nearly brings Dex down with him, but Dex manages to get his arm out from under him just in time. He doesn’t take any time to rebalance himself before he scrambles to help Nursey back up, so when his foot hits the same patch of ice that sent Nursey tumbling the first time, his legs comes out from under him completely, and he falls, landing squarely on top of Nursey with a quiet _oof_.

 

Dex is going to get off him right away, but Nursey, apparently not affected by Dex landing on him in the slightest (or at the very least, pretending he isn’t), says, “Nice of you to drop in,” and Dex just stops. Dex can hear Nursey’s grin of self-congratulations at being smoother than him in his voice, can picture the look on his face, and Dex is done. He’s literally just so ridiculous.

 

 _I take it back, I’m not in love with you_ , Dex thinks, even though he doesn’t mean it at all.

 

A beat after that thought passes through his mind, Dex feels the rumbling of Nursey’s voice in his chest against his own. “You’re _what_?” Nursey asks, his voice quiet and yet shocked and incredulous.

 

Dex frowns, and then a second later, it occurs to him what happened. His face suddenly feels freezing cold as all the blood drains from it, and his whole body goes numb. His mouth opened without his brain’s permission, allowing his last thought to escape from his lips unfettered.

 

“I—what nothing I didn’t say anything,” Dex answers quickly, because he has to say something, anything to deflect from the momentous (and possibly destructive) confession that he just accidentally voiced. If possible, he has to ensure that Nursey never, _ever_ knows what he just said.

 

“Look, I know I’m wearing a beanie and that sometimes makes it hard to hear, but I _know_ I heard you say something,” Nursey rebuts firmly and surely.

 

“No! I didn’t say anything!” Dex snaps without thinking, because it’s hard to think when the only thing happening in your mind is essentially the equivalent of a deafening, blaring emergency siren. “Would you just fucking chill?!”

 

There’s a long pause.

 

“Did you just tell me to chill?”

 

“Fuck,” Dex mumbles, bringing a hand up to cover his face as his cheeks begin to burn again. That was the worst thing he could’ve said there, because even if Nursey didn’t hear exactly what he let slip, the fact that Dex just told him to chill and forget it is going to be enough to make Nursey suspicious of its seriousness.

 

Fucking fuck, he’s so fucked.

 

“Dex,” Nursey grunts as that thought plays through his head on a loop. “Okay Dex, I know there’s something big going on in your head and like—as nice as this is, you’ve been laying on top of me for like five minutes and it’s getting hard to breathe.”

 

Dex would like to move. He really would. But at the moment he’s absolutely terrified. _Something big going on in your head_. Nursey is 100% onto him, and that means it’s only a matter of time before he figures out what Dex said and that’s kind of all he can focus on at the moment. It’s too much to even focus on moving.

 

Nursey lets him lie there for another minute or so before pushing his shoulder gently. “Yo Dex, please,” he says, his voice strained.

 

Dex doesn’t want to hurt him, so that gets his attention enough that he can force himself to move. But he doesn’t move very far, rolling over off Nursey and onto his back. He gazes up blankly at the sky as his mind continues to race. He stares for a few long minutes, waiting for Nursey to get up, to say something, but he doesn’t.

 

“Nice weather,” Dex then offers up weakly, which doesn’t make any sense because they literally just had a terrible snowstorm, but he’s just been a mess so far this morning so at least he’s being consistent.

 

Nursey frowns at him then sighs deeply. “Fine, so you’re going to play this game,” he says, sitting up. “That’s chill I guess,” he continues, offering up a wavering smile as he stands up and looks down at Dex, standing over him so they’re forced to make eye contact. “But I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you too so like—if you ever want to like, not pretend this didn’t happen, you know where to find me.”

 

Nursey moves to take a step onward toward—right, the store, that’s where they were going—but then Dex processes what he said.

 

 _I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you too_.

 

“Wait, stop!” Dex yells, and Nursey turns abruptly, apparently having forgotten how slippery the sidewalk is. So he slips and falls— _again_. At least this time he returns the favor from earlier, landing on top of Dex instead of eating concrete.

 

“So that’s just how this is going to go, isn’t it?” Nursey mumbles, Dex assumes, to himself while he’s propping himself up on his elbows to look Dex in the eye (his elbows manage to slip at least three times and if Dex wasn’t so shocked and the moment so serious, he would be laughing hysterically. Eventually he gets himself propped up.

 

“Are—are you really being serious? Are you really in love with me too?” Dex questions, because he’s not sure he believes what he heard.

 

“Yeah,” Nursey answers, and Dex’s whole body feels like it’s on fire even though it’s below freezing. Then a smirk starts to come across Nursey’s face and Dex almost feels like throwing up because fuck, this was just a—

 

“I fell for you, didn’t I?” Nursey adds, and now Dex can’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. Nursey thinks he was being clever and smooth, but really he was just being a massive dork (while also giving Dex a heart attack at the same time). Dex kind of wants to punch him in the face, but he also wants to kiss the smirk clean off it too.

 

Of the two options, Dex likes the second one better though, so he leans forward and gently presses their lips together. “Whatever,” Dex mutters when he pulls away after a few seconds. He’s blushing, probably darker than he ever has, but at least he got Nursey to stop smirking. Now he’s got the goofiest grin Dex has ever seen on his face—but if he’s being honest, he’s probably wearing a similar expression because Nursey loves him and they kissed and—well he doesn’t know what comes next, but that doesn’t matter right now.

 

Nursey bends down and kisses him again, and really, Dex would like to stay here and do this all day, but it’s cold, and he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket, reminding him of why they’re out here in the first place.

 

He pushes Nursey back gently, and Nursey pouts, but Dex shakes his head. “We need to get going,” he says. “We went out to get butter and we’re already taking too long. Bitty was almost out when we left and I’m pretty sure no one wants to know what happens if he runs out.”

 

Nursey shudders and nods. “Ch’yeah, that’s true,” he says, climbing off of Dex and moving to stand up (and Dex does not whine at the loss of Nursey’s weight and heat, shut the fuck up). But because he’s Nursey, and because he’s clumsier than any other human being Dex has ever met, he slips and falls for a fucking third time, landing on his stomach next to Dex.

 

“Ouch,” he moans loudly.

 

Dex can’t help laughing. A year ago, he would’ve laughed because Nursey was an idiot and didn’t remember falling twice, and wasn’t more careful trying to get up. Now, he’s laughing because this is a ludicrous situation. He admitted his love and found out Nursey felt the same and got to kiss him—all because Nursey is fucking clumsy. He’s an actual human disaster, and Dex is so unbelievably in love with him.

 

“Yeah, okay, go ahead and laugh instead of helping me up,” Nursey grumbles, shoving Dex lightly.

 

“Oh chill. I was getting there,” Dex says.

 

“You just told me to chill again,” Nursey says, and Dex can’t see his face but he can hear the shit-eating grin he’s wearing.

 

“You know I could just let you lie there.”

 

“C’mon Dexy, help me,” Nursey practically wails, and Dex rolls his eyes.

 

“You know you’re ridiculous, right?” he says, rolling Nursey onto his back and offering his hand.

 

“And yet,” Nursey says when they’re finally back up and steady on their feet, “you’re in love with me.”

 

Dex lets out a snort of laughter as he smiles softly. “Yeah, I really am.”


End file.
